Home Team

Away Team

Game Scores

.Game
Result

Hewlett-Packard

Xansa

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

5th

1

Godfrey Jordan

Martin Sizer

5/9

9/5

5/9

7/9

-/-

1

3

2

Jonathan George

Jamie Thompson

9/2

9/5

9/4

-/-

-/-

3

0

3

Tristan Greatrex

Steve Rickman

9/1

9/6

8/10

9/1

-/-

3

1

4

Gerald Cussen

Nigel Richardson

3/9

9/6

6/9

9/5

9/7

3

2

5

Graham Morrison

Paul Bradley

4/9

9/7

9/7

3/9

1/9

2

3

Total

12

9

17

9

MATCH REPORT

Mastering Masterfoods!!!

The story:

This was always going to be a match where any string could have gone either way, and so it proved.

Gerald and Nigel took the court first. This was the first match for Gerald for 10 days as he was resting up a slight calf strain, and Nigel is not an opponent you want when you aren't match "fit", as he proved against me last season. The first saw Nigel race to a 4-0 lead, despite 5 hand-ins Gerry could not open his account, 6-1 and the first looked to have slipped away and so it proved Nigel closing it out 9-3. The second ding-donged to 4-all, then 6-all, but Gerry levelled the match with a sprint finish. The third was looking to go the same way as the first at 6-3 to Nigel, Gerry ground it out to pull back to 6-all, but a hand later it was 9-6 and 2-1 to Nigel. The fourth was a similar pattern to the second, ding-dong to 4-3 to Gerry, then 5-3, then 5-all, at 6-5 Gerry unleashed the sprint taking it 9-5 and into the fifth we went. I was marking on the other court and could hear the score being called...4-1 (but to whom!)...4-all (Hmm?)...5-4, 5-all, 6-5, 6-all, 7-6, 7-all (Jeez!)...it was going to the wire. In the pub I learned that at 7-all, Nigel had Gerry stranded at the back of the court, all he needed to do was put the drop up...we've all been there....no pressure just pop it up...and....bugger...it clipped the tin...hand-in to Gerry. This was an opportunity to capitalise on, and so it was, Gerry closing it out 9-7 and 1-0 to HP.

One word describes the game between Godfrey and Martin and that word is "quality". Godfrey and I had discussed at length the potential match and Martin met our expectations, his speed around the court was phenomenal and his lob off of a forehand drop on a cold court was devastating. Yet like all of us he was fallible, particularly on the backhand volley drop. I didn't time the first game, but it must have been at least 10 minutes, 15 hands and the score was 2-all, this was going to be attritional. Martin then spurted to 5-2, 10 hands later it was 8-4, three game balls saved and it was 8-5, but Martin closed it out 9-5. The second (9 minutes) was the same pattern but Godfrey edged to 4-1, Martin pulled it back to lead 5-4, but Godfrey kept up the early pressure...9-5 to Godfrey. In the third (another 10 minute game) Godfrey raced to 5-1 and I thought Martin looked a little tired....but alas he wasn't..3 points in one hand, 2 in the next three hands and then 3 more in a single hand and 9-5 to Martin. In the fourth Godfrey again led, 4-1, 5-1, then 7-4...I'd always back Godfrey to win from here...but Martin had other ideas, 2 "no lets" didn't help Godfrey and suddenly it's 8-7 and match ball. A brave rally and it's hand-in but a further (some may say harsh!) "no-let" and match ball again, put away with a blistering back hand cross-court.
One rubber each, the form book was looking spot on.

Next up myself against Jamie, a former 1st string for Masterfoods, but in recent seasons somewhat off his best. I knew this wasn't a game to mess about with, so my game plan was to ensure I volleyed when I could, drive him to the back and then drop him off a weakened return. For once, the plan worked, Jamie wasn't pushing forward enough, so once at the back I got the ball I needed to drop at the front. Conversely when Jamie adopted the same tactics his error rate at the front was too high and he tinned a number of "easy points". It wasn't an easy game and I had to keep my concentration and the pressure on to give me a relatively (for the night) easy 3-0 win.
2-1 to HP.

Graham and Paul had taken to the court in the fifth string match. I didn't see much of the first two games and these were shared 1 a piece. At the back end of the third I took over the marking. 8-5 to Graham and looking to take a 2-1 lead. Both Graham and Paul had decided to play the game in front of the short line with the ball making infrequent visits to the back of the court.Paul pulled it back to 8-7 but Graham closed it out to take the 2-1 lead. What happened in the next two games I just don't know, the pattern was the same with both players battling at the front of the court. Paul got a run of 5 points and was generally increasing his account at each hand in, Graham was getting hand-in but not adding to his tally, so 9-3 to Paul and into the fifth it went. Unfortunately the pattern of the fourth continued, with Paul getting strings of 4 points and then 2 and he's suddenly 6-1 up and too far ahead....9-1 to Paul taking the game and match and levelling the rubbers at 2-all.

So with the rubbers at 2-all and 5 bonus points at stake who would you choose to take the court to see you home, of course, none other than young Tris.
Tris and Steve, two of the nicest guys you'd ever want to put on court together, this was going to be a game where the ball wasn't dead until it rolled. The first was tight for the initial 6 hands and the score was 1-all, but Tris put in two solid hands adding 3 and then 4 to his total giving him 8-1 and game ball and setting him up to take the game 9-1, maybe this was going to be easier than we thought. The second was altogether closer, but I didn't feel Tris was hitting the ball deep enough or taking it on the volley to deprive Steve of time and hence he was able to settle and with his speed pick up and play just about everything, nevertheless Tris closed it out 9-6. Despite my advice in the break Tris followed a similar pattern to his credit got himself to 8-5 and match ball which Steve duly saved and in one hand then proceeded to take the game 10-8. Surely this wasn't going to end up another five setter nail biter! The fourth started in the same vein but from 3-1 up Tris started striking the ball cleanly and putting Steve under pressure depriving him of time to get balanced and moving him around the court, one hand later 8-1 up and match ball, Steve put up one final resistive effort, but it was not enough, 3-1 to Tris and match to HP by the 3 rubbers to 2.

Phew!!!...a great and throughly enjoyable match.

The Crooked Billet served up the cordon-bleu (aka expensive!) Chilli once again with Garlic bread that should see the week out, the beer was warm and tasty and stories of Phil Shaffer filled the room.

Onwards and upwards.

Cheers,
Jonathan

Home Team

Away Team

Game Scores

.Game
Result

Hewlett-Packard

Xansa

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

5th

1

Godfrey Jordan

Mike Neal

9/1

2/9

9/2

9/4

-/-

3

1

2

Jonathan George

Simon Gaines

3/9

9/4

9/1

2/9

9/3

3

2

3

Gerald Cussen

Pete Amor

10/8

9/6

9/6

-/-

-/-

3

0

4

Tristan Greatrex

Clive Eeles

9/5

9/1

9/3

-/-

-/-

3

0

5

Graham Morrison

Nick Rowley

9/0

9/5

9/3

-/-

/-

3

0

Total

15

3

20

3

MATCH REPORT

Cold courts, but HP on fire!

The story:

Graham's turn to sweep the courts this week!

First and third strings took to the courts first, although the 3rd string match was a game ahead by the time the "pros" had finished their pre-match stretching and warm-up! ;-)

Gerald was always ahead in the 1st, taking a 6-3 lead, Pete fought back to 6-all but then lost the next series of 2 point exchanges, 8-6, 8-all, 10-8.
In the second Gerald stormed to 8-2 and game ball in three hands, hand out and suddenly it was 8-6, but again it was bridge too far for Pete. The third was tight to 5-all, Gerald eased ahead to 7-6 and two further hands saw him close out the game and match.

I'm pleased to report that my marking this week didn't cause any fireworks. In a match where the scoreline didn't really reflect the play, Godfrey had strings of 4 points, 3 points and 2 points to take the first in 5 minutes. In the 2nd, Mike's anticipation (or was it guessing?) put Godfrey under some pressure as he took the ball early and from 4-2 he took the game in a single hand, another game of 5 minutes. Godfrey was back on form on the 3rd, three hands and it was done....again in about 5 minutes. The 4th was a slightly longer game, but Mike let Godfrey get ahead 7-1 and it was always going to be a long way back from there. Each of the games had some excellent squash and there weren't many two-shot rallies. The cold courts meant it was difficult to get the ball to the back of the court and both had to work hard at this.

I didn't see any of Graham and Nick's match, but I did hear Pete mutter to team mate that someone should go and tell Nick to calm down as it appear nerves got the better of him as he lost the first to love. With a 6-1 lead in the 2nd it looked like it was going to be over quickly, but Nick fought back to 5-6. Four hands later it was 8-5 to Graham, but he needed 4 games balls to close it out. Nick started the 3rd well, taking a 3-love lead, but was unable to add to his account as Graham cruised home to close it out 9-3.

I really enjoyed my game with Simon, his speed around the court and retrieval is spectacular and on many occasions he produced a number of impossible winners. The court temperature made getting the ball to the back of the court very difficult and at the front I was losing out to Simon's speed, despite moving the ball around trying to twist and turn him. We shared the first two games, and in the third thankfully he gave me too much ball to play with. I was looking to close it out in the 4th but Simon had other ideas so into the 5th we went. Luckily for me Simon started tinning a number of returns, particularly his backhand return of serve, this gave me a 6-1 lead and I was pleased to close it out 9-3.

Tris was last on and again I didn't see any of this match. He trailed in the first 3-5, but one hand took him from 3 to game. The 2nd was all Tris from his 2nd hand-in, racing to a 6-0 lead, hand-out and the loss of one point didn't put him off his stride and he needed only a further hand-in to take it. The 3rd was more of a ding-dong battle, but the difference was that Tris added to his score on each hand-in, 1-0, 2-0, 3-0, 6-0, 6-2, 7-3 and 9-3 and it was all over.

A good solid performance from the HP boys right the way down the order, against an admitedly injury ravaged Xansa team.

The Crooked Billet served up Lasagne (enough to feed 3 teams!) and the beer was warm and tasty as we sat around the fire exchanging our squash tales.

Onwards and upwards.

Cheers,
Jonathan

Home Team

Away Team

Game Scores

.Game
Result

Vodafone

Hewlett-Packard

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

5th

1

Kevin Herod

Godfrey Jordan

9/3

2/9

3/9

5/9

-/-

1

3

2

Nick Piper

Neil Osborne

2/9

4/9

0/9

-/-

-/-

0

3

3

Simon Bottomley

Jonathan George

w/o

w/o

w/o

-/-

-/-

0

3

4

Oliver Excell

Gerald Cussen

1/9

0/9

0/9

-/-

-/-

0

3

5

Craig Anderson

Tristan Greatrex

0/9

0/9

1/9

-/-

/-

0

3

Total

1

15

1

20

MATCH REPORT

Stuck on A34 Hell!

The story:

The moral of this story is DON'T FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS to Canon's Newbury listed on the Canon's website, which says, and I quote:

Come off the M4 at Junction 13 and take the A34 South to Newbury. Follow the road through 3 sets of traffic lights until you come to a roundabout with the Police Station on your left. Go straight over, keeping the Sainsbury's store on your left. At the next roundabout turn left and then right at the mini roundabout following the brown signs for the racecourse. Continue to follow signs to racecourse, once at racecourse follow Cannons signs to the club.
Having left in plenty of time, I exited the M4 at about 6:20pm...I duly followed the A34 South....unfortunately this now takes you down the Newbury by-pass, it wasn't until some 10 miles later when I hit the A303 that I realised I probably wasn't going to see one set of traffic lights, let alone 3! The instructions should have said take the A339 to Newbury (which is the OLD A34!). Anyway 10 miles back up the A34 to the M4 junction.... I missed the bloody turning again and this time ended up 5 miles North of the M4 before I could turn round...I was starting to think I'd never get off the A34!

Finding the club inside Newbury Racecourse isn't an easy task in itself, but I finally got there.

On my arrival (some 45 minutes after the start time!) Godfrey and Gerald where on court, courts that must have the highest galleries in Berkshire....those suffering from vertigo should neither spectate nor mark!

Neil was marking Godfrey's game and Tris was marking Gerald's. Tris was in his kit, but didn't look as though he'd played (believe me you generally know when Tris has played!) A quick glance at the result sheet showed the reason, Tris losing only a single point in the last game!

Gerald's match followed the same pattern, although he lost his single point in the first game!

Godfrey had the best game of the evening, although he also got stuck in A34 hell and had left his brain there for the first game. After that, against a solid opponent Godfrey had to put some work in, but basically looked in total control.

Having got over my altitude sickness I looked around the gallery and could only spot a single Vodafone player, this being Neil's opponent at 2nd string. A polite enquiry later I learned that my opponent had arrived at the club (needless to say he was there before me!) with his swimming gear! On realising his mistake he allegedly decided that travelling the 15 minutes each way to home and back was all too much and he duly departed.

Neil was untroubled on his HP debut at 2nd string, losing only 6 points....so with my walkover we ended up with a rather convincing 20 points to 1 victory for HP.

Tris kindly offered to give me a knock, and beat me 3-2 in a best of five/american scoring....luckily no ladder points at stake!

By the time Tris and I were in the showers (not in the biblical sense!) the club had helpfully turned the hot water off...so the showers weren't just cold, the water was straight from the mains and washing my hair was enough to give a me a headache as the blood rushed to my head....Tris sounded as though he was in agony (or was it ecstasy?) and only just got out of the cubicle before his back went into spasm!

Still, at least there was the meal and a bear to come, Vodafone kindly treating us to this. However, it wasn't until a quarter of the way down my pint did I realise I was drinking detergent with a bitter top...obviously flushing the pipes at Canon's is not one of their strong points.

As I was trying to take the taste out of my mouth, my mobile rang, it was Godfrey telling me that the A322 at Bagshot was shut and he was just turning round to re-join the M4 at Reading to make his way home to Reigate.

All in all, apart from the scoreline, a rather unsatisfactory evening of Business League Squash and that pint worked it's way through my system causing me to have to take Thursday off-sick!

Onward and upward.

Cheers,
JG

Home Team

Away Team

Game Scores

.Game
Result

Hewlett-Packard

Fujitsu

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

5th

1

Godfrey Jordan

Richard Berkij

9/5

9/4

9/2

-/-

-/-

3

0

2

Jonathan George

Ian Huggan

7/9

9/2

9/0

9/0

-/-

3

1

3

Tristan Greatrex

Terry Curling

9/7

9/7

9/2

-/-

-/-

3

0

4

Paul Hodgetts

Aaron Vidal

7/9

3/9

0/9

-/-

-/-

0

3

5

Graham Morrison

John Ballantyne

6/9

7/9

9/2

9/5

9/5

3

2

Total

12

6

17

6

MATCH REPORT

Morrison fightback eases pressure and

leads HP to solid opening victory

The story:

The pre-match money was on Fujitsu to win at 4 and 5, HP at 1 and 3, and the match hinging on George dealing with his nemesis, Huggan.

With the courts swept clean by yours truely, Graham and John took to the court for the first match of evening. The first match was a tight affair to 6-7, before John edged it out 9-6. In the second John raced to 7-0 up in three hands, the pre-match money was looking safe, however Graham fought back to 7-all in a further three hands, but again John edged it out 9-7. The form book looked safe once again. However, in the third Graham took a 5-0 lead on his first hand in, with a little resistance from John this was enough for Graham to take it 9-2. The 4th was back to the pattern of the first, tight to 5-all, then Graham realed off 3 points taking him to game ball, which was saved, but a hand-in later the game went to Graham 9-5, 2-all and into the 5th. Graham goes 3-0 down, fights back to 4-3 in a single hand, then 5-3....12 hand outs later the score was still 5-3, Graham scores a further 2 points, John fights back with two of his own, 7-5 to Graham. Back from the dead Graham closes out the game and the match 9-5. What a dogged performance from the Scotsman!!! A match which earned him player of the evening.

In the meantime on the other court Paul and Aaron took the court for Aaron's debut match in the Business Leagues. This was going to be a battle, and it wasn't pretty or text book squash. Paul was 4-2, 6-3, 7-4 up in the first but Aaron got hand in on 5 occasions and on each occasion added to his points total taking it 9-7. In the 2nd Paul went 3-5 down and couldn't come back from this, losing out 9-3. In the third Aaron was 8-0 up in two hands and at match ball. So, at 2-0 up and 8-0 match ball, Paul returns the ball to the middle of the court (not the best of ideas), in what can only be described as a mess the two players become rather entangled....I call a let ball (surely the right thing to do)....hmmmm....light blue touch paper and stand back! The players have words, Aaron addresses some choice comments to the marker....the usual stuff, soon over and forgotten (or so I thought). Aaron serves again goes hand out, gets it back and closes out the 3rd and the match 9-0.

So, 1-all. The Bracknell team mates Tris and Terry take to the court, can Terry pull off a Graham and reverse the upset at 5th string. The first was a hard fought affair with both players putting in the effort to make for some great squash, Tris edging it 9-7. In the second Terry raced to a 5-0 lead on his first hand in, 4 further hands and he was 7-0 up. For anyone that knows or has played Tris he is the master of the come-back and tonight was going to be no exception, two hands later Tris takes the 2nd 9-7. The third was Tris all the way, 9-2.

2-1 to HP. Godfrey and Richard take to the court, Godders (or "slow to turn" as Phil Kenyon calls him) was quietly confident against an out of match practice Richard. Again the first was tight to 5-all, before Godfrey closed it out 9-5. As I took to the court, Godfrey confirmed the 1-up score line...I knew the pressure was off my game. Richard was up 4-2 in the second, but two hands later the game was over 9-4 to Godders. The third was more of the same but worse, Godfrey closing it and the match 9-2. The form book was right again.

3-1 to HP and the match safe. I've played Ian before and he's always been too strong for me with an excellent lob and touch game, however with a summer break he might not be on top form. At 7-4 up in the first I was feeling good, 7-all wasn't that good and going down 9-7 was a bloody disaster. I needn't have worried, with Ian not getting forward and giving me far too much half court ball to play with I took the 2nd 9-2 and the 3rd and 4th 9-0. Three games for the loss of 2 points to Ian Huggan...I'm going to frame that!

4-1 to HP, a job well done and a solid result under our belts.

A pleasant evening (with food, that was nice but not cheap!!!!) then followed at the usual watering hole that is the Crooked Billet.

Onwards and upwards.

Cheers,
Jonathan